Charlottesville may be considered one of the best places to live in America, but not for everyone. A community of affluence and culture, there are still a great number of people who cannot afford even the most modest of apartments and find themselves with no support and no shelter.
Homelessness is a crisis that plagues this community and few people have a clear understanding of its causes or victims.
"In society we often treat people on the street with, at best, neglect, and often outright scorn," said David Norris, executive director of People and Congregations Involved in Ministry.
A survey done in January by the Thomas Jefferson Area Coalition for the Homeless estimated that there are over 250 people without viable shelter in the Thomas Jefferson planning district, an area that includes the counties of Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Nelson, as well as the City of Charlottesville. This was an increase of eight percent from last year.
The surveyors physically located 175 individuals who are without homes, but TJACH believes many more may exist, as it is much harder to locate homeless people in rural areas, TJACH Secretary Evan Scully said. Of the homeless adults who were surveyed, 37 percent were employed and over a quarter had dependent children. Lower working-class families are the fastest growing homeless population in the district.
Who are the homeless?
Homelessness can affect a broad range of individuals.
"There is no easy way to stereotype as to who is homeless in Charlottesville," Norris said.
The most visible homeless people are panhandlers, or men who sit on busy streets and beg passersby for spare change. This leads to a common and understandable misconception that most homeless people panhandle or beg, Scully said.
"People equate homeless people with panhandlers," Norris said. "For the most part, the homeless population does not panhandle."
The majority of homeless people are homeless only once or twice in their lives, according to Scully, and even then only for a few weeks.
"It's a transitory population," he said. "People move in and out."
Norris explained that the people who circulate in and out of shelters like those run by PACEM, which only served men this year, come from diverse backgrounds. Some of the men once held careers in business and law enforcement and are college educated -- a few are even University graduates. Others are veterans or individuals who suffer from chronic physical or mental illnesses.
A number of homeless people who were recently released from prison or who are struggling with serious addiction often are discriminated against by potential employers and the general community, said Jim Hart, director of volunteering at the Salvation Army in Charlottesville.
Most homeless people work full or part time, or have been without jobs for only a few months.
Faces of the homeless
To meet some people who suffered from homelessness, I visited a PACEM shelter, located in the gym behind the First Baptist Church on Park Street.
PACEM consisted of a group of churches that, during the winter months, alternated housing men who would not be accepted by other shelters for sobriety reasons. This was PACEM's first year in operation, so it was only able to stay open through mid-March, Norris said.
PACEM hopes to greatly expand its services next year, he said.
Church members and other community volunteers staffed the shelter, providing roughly 30 men with food, haircuts and companionship. The food and blankets were donated by the church, and bag lunches for the men were provided by the emergency food shelter, volunteer James Alley said.
The men whom I spoke with were courteous and open about their lives and current circumstances.
One man, who suffered from diabetes and lymphoid problems in his legs, explained he was a 4.0 student at the Albemarle Business and Technical School but had to drop out when his family ran into financial problems.
He recently had found himself unable to afford housing because of his medical condition and a recent relapse into substance abuse but expressed his determination to overcome his current problems and eventually enter the ministry.
"Because I've been through a lot of stuff, I can help lift other people out of it," he said.
I spoke to several other men that night over games of chess and cups of donated soda, and their manners ranged from quirky liveliness to reflective quiet and expressed a resolve and gratitude for what they still had left.
'Pushed out'
There are multiple causes of homelessness, ranging from systemic to individual.
"There are probably as many reasons as there are cases," Hart said.
According to the TJACH survey, the most common reason for homelessness was eviction.
"There is no affordable housing in this community," Hart said.
According to the TJACH survey, a minimum-wage worker must work 144 hours each week to afford a two-bedroom apartment in Charlottesville, under Charlottesville's Fair Market Rent rate. There are 168 hours in a week.
"People on the lower end of the economic spectrum get pushed out," Norris said.
Financial crises are particularly hard on individuals who live off minimum wage.
"Almost any unexpected financial event can push those living hand-to-mouth out on the street," Scully said.
Families of low socio-economic status and individuals who live from paycheck to paycheck rarely have support systems of friends or family members who can loan them money or provide them with food and a place to stay.
The presence of college students also intensifies the lack of low-rent housing.
"One of the real things that is putting pressure on the housing market locally is that the University of Virginia has not produced enough on-Grounds housing for students," Norris said.
Substance abuse or mental illness in combination with a lack of financial stability can often lead to homelessness.
"When you throw serious addiction or mental illness into the mix, you end up on the street," Scully said.
The steadily deteriorating mental health system and lack of sufficient detoxification centers available to help people also contribute to homelessness, Hart said.
Other factors such as domestic violence, generational and spousal, can lead to homelessness, especially when those driven from their homes have no support system to fall back on, he said.
What's being done?
There are multiple shelters in Charlottesville like PACEM and the Salvation Army. In addition, there are other steps being taken by local groups to more effectively remedy and prevent homelessness.
"Shelters are valuable and important, but ultimately they are just a band-aid," Norris said. "We as a community need to address this so that we don't need shelters."
TJACH will soon be assembling local politicians, housing contractors, and representatives from the University hospital, as well as other institutions and organizations who provide aid to the homeless, to develop local strategies and initiatives to eliminate homelessness, TJACH Co-Chair Judith Pitts said.
These initiatives include continual care plans that will help those in shelters more effectively transition back into housing and establish financial stability, Hart said.
Other projects, such as building more affordable low-rent housing, are included in TJACH's plans to meet the national challenge to eliminate homelessness in large communities by 2012, which was set by the federal government's Housing and Urban Development commission.
TJACH has already received a commitment of $396,000 from HUD, Hart said.
Lending a hand
On the individual level, there are many opportunities available to students and other community members who want to give aid to the local homeless. Simply spending time volunteering at local homeless shelters provides invaluable experiences for students and individuals in the shelter, Norris said.
Madison House offers a variety of student-run programs that allow student volunteers to work at shelters providing food and care for homeless people and their children, youngsters who rarely get to see their parents who are struggling to make ends meet, said Andrew McCormick, Hoo's Against Hunger and Homelessness head program director.
"Spending an hour a week with these people, you see some powerful effects" on them, he said.
Members of TJACH are hopeful that with continued and sustained efforts from the members of the community, and with the cooperation of the multiple institutions and organizations that do or could work to provide aid for the Charlottesville homeless, the crisis of homelessness can be ended locally.
"I believe that we can make homelessness in Charlottesville go away," Pitts said. "It is a very manageable goal."
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